The UAE's No 1 golfer Ahmed Skaik will compete at this year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship having received the UAE National Amateur invite on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council.
Skaik will have the chance to test his skills against some of the best players in the world, including four-time major winner Rory McIlroy and world No 3 Justin Thomas.
The 23-year-old Emirati made his European Tour debut at last year's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and went on to win the 2020 UAE Presidents Cup before clinching two Men’s Open tiles to finish as runner-up in the EGF Order of Merit rankings.
At the end of last season, Skaik competed in another European Tour event at the Golf in Dubai Championships.
“It is a privilege to receive the invitation to return to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship," Skaik said. “It was an incredible experience last year and a pivotal learning curve in my career. I can’t wait to go back and give my all alongside some of the best players in the world.
“It was great to get out at the Golf in Dubai Championships a few weeks ago, and it was a huge honour to hit the first tee shot on UAE National Day.
“I can take some vital lessons from those rounds into next week. Given it is the 50th anniversary of the UAE it is even more special to play in this tournament, and I’m determined to put in a performance to make my nation proud.”
The 2021 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, taking place January 21-24, is the first tournament of the new European Tour season and will be one of four Rolex Series events played across the year.
“We are delighted to welcome back Ahmad to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. He is the shining star of Emirati golf and destined for great things in the future," Aref Al Awani, general secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said.
“Abu Dhabi has become of one of the world’s leading destinations for sport and with ambassadors such as Ahmad we hope to continue to inspire future generations of sportsmen and women for years to come.”
First staged in 2006, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is hosted at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club for the 16th consecutive year, with a prize fund of $8 million and 8,000 Race to Dubai points available.
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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Profile of Udrive
Date started: March 2016
Founder: Hasib Khan
Based: Dubai
Employees: 40
Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
The biog
Age: 46
Number of Children: Four
Hobby: Reading history books
Loves: Sports
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
